From the very beginning of the Player, Robert Altman subtly un-suspends the audience’s disbelief. The very first scene is Robert Altman with a slate calling the Player into action. In keeping this usually-deleted aspect of film in the movie, Altman is giving us a more rounded view of the showbiz industry. At the conclusion of the movie, in an unsettling summing-up of the movie, Griffin Mill receives a call from the screenwriter who has been sending him threatening postcards to him the entire movie and pitches him the plot for the Player, in a menacing tone in order to extract blackmail money. Griffin, after agreeing to pay off the sum, casts an eerie aside: “Sounds like a good plot for a movie.” In this manner, Altman is bringing the movie full circle, leading the audience to the question, “What was real?” In bringing this question up, Altman is trying to also raise doubt about validity in any movie, and in show-business in general.
The first actual scene of the movie is intensely long, panning and moving in from one aspect of life on a studio lot to another, none of the aspects too admirable (this scene is reputedly an homage to Hitchcock’s movie Rope, which also boasts an extremely long scene of this ilk). Phrases like “Ghost meets Alien” or some other hideous concoction are thrown around all too easily, and—for the most part—accepted as necessary evils in show-business. These exchanges are used in a number of ways: they are used to further plot; to poke fun at the drivel some studios produce; and to coyly remark on what the Player actually is.
What genre is the Player? Funnily enough, it is exactly what the movie has been poking at. It is a mix-and-match genre movie. Slow beats, lighting, themes, and an antihero main character (who just happens to have a motivation reminiscent of a private eye) all point to a classic noir movie. However, the setting and themes are also reminiscent of a movie about Hollywood. Two polar genres are brought together in a manner that would not usually be coupled. Once again, Altman is breaking rules, hoping to un-suspend belief.
The Player is a movie about the movies, but more specifically, it is a movie about movie writers. Writers who can make their own endings, middle, and beginnings; inconsistencies and injustices are ignored for happy Hollywood endings. The writers—and by extension, the movie executives who select which stories to produce, to make real—get to choose their own endings. In this case, it is a rose-covered cottage with an American flag and a beautiful pregnant wife waiting for Griffin upon returning for work. It all seems so perfect! It’s perfect because it’s not real. Altman continually pushes that thought, whether that be through abominable movie mash-ups or breaking the fourth wall.
The first actual scene of the movie is intensely long, panning and moving in from one aspect of life on a studio lot to another, none of the aspects too admirable (this scene is reputedly an homage to Hitchcock’s movie Rope, which also boasts an extremely long scene of this ilk). Phrases like “Ghost meets Alien” or some other hideous concoction are thrown around all too easily, and—for the most part—accepted as necessary evils in show-business. These exchanges are used in a number of ways: they are used to further plot; to poke fun at the drivel some studios produce; and to coyly remark on what the Player actually is.
What genre is the Player? Funnily enough, it is exactly what the movie has been poking at. It is a mix-and-match genre movie. Slow beats, lighting, themes, and an antihero main character (who just happens to have a motivation reminiscent of a private eye) all point to a classic noir movie. However, the setting and themes are also reminiscent of a movie about Hollywood. Two polar genres are brought together in a manner that would not usually be coupled. Once again, Altman is breaking rules, hoping to un-suspend belief.
The Player is a movie about the movies, but more specifically, it is a movie about movie writers. Writers who can make their own endings, middle, and beginnings; inconsistencies and injustices are ignored for happy Hollywood endings. The writers—and by extension, the movie executives who select which stories to produce, to make real—get to choose their own endings. In this case, it is a rose-covered cottage with an American flag and a beautiful pregnant wife waiting for Griffin upon returning for work. It all seems so perfect! It’s perfect because it’s not real. Altman continually pushes that thought, whether that be through abominable movie mash-ups or breaking the fourth wall.
I'm glad you really dug into this one. A great analysis!
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